Monday, April 13, 2015

Enough days at office and a breath of fresh air was much needed by our lungs. If you don't get that on time, you forget to live and become a machine(or a slave).So, here we are. This trip starts like most of them do..on weekend. And pity my planning(&thinking), I try to maximize use of resources(time here) like starting on a Friday evening to an early morning Monday trip. You know to MAXIMIZE time-off. Hypocrisy! The whole point is to get lost out there. No need to cover everything, just take a deep breath and relax.To sights like these :

We decided to take the most relaxed route from Magarpatta(Pune) to Bamnoli. You may take a full day to reach. The point is to enjoy the journey and not just touch-and-come place.

We didn't want NH4 traffic so decided to go via Saswad-Veer Dam-Kaas-Bamnoli route, you know more of a landscape than a mad rush.

(yeah, go ahead and open maps in a new tab. We techies are designed like this. :))

Started out in morning(not early) and crossed Dive Ghat to say bye to city for a while towards Saswad. Tasted the amazing vada-pao's near ST stand and marched forward. One aspect that comes with travel is food. You get a lot of different things to try for your taste buds. And every foodie knows that roadside food is a delight.

Next in line was sugarcane juice to beat scorching heat of Maharashtra. The scene was a typical village one. People sitting under a big tree, gossiping, reading newspaper in there white kurta-pyajamas and topi.

The journey moved on and we reached Veer dam. Stopped by the canal it generates to taste water and some pics. Then, Yogesh talked about it's backwater view nearby and we flew there in a splash! The picture above of ducks swimming was taken there. B'ful cool breeze overpowering Sun.

Nano resting near backwaters (Veer Dam)

The journey has to carry on. Many more b'ful scenes await us.

"Yuhi chala chal rahi, yuhi chala chal rahi...

Jeevan gaadi hai samay pahiya." ~ AR Rehman, Swades

We marched towards Satara now via Lonand until a train told us to hold our horses and take a chill-pill. :)

It was a good break to have and for the first time in India, I saw proper lane-discipline. After bidding train bye-bye in Kids style, we started forward only to lured by this sight of fruits at the road.

Who can move ahead without tasting a few. Ate a lot of them along with Water-melons. Also packed a few for our trek tomorrow. So much fun and relax to chit-chat with locals. Strawberries better than Mahabaleshwar ones and not over-priced.

Next, I'll talk about crossing Satara, Kaas and reaching Bamnoli and our experience of camping near the lake.